Syllabus

Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont
Performance Art: In Theory, In Body, In Motion, In Action/reaction


Text:
Art on the Edge and Over, Searching for Art’s Meaning in Contemporary Society 1970’s-1990’s. by Linda Weintraub

Objective: Students will gain a practical knowledge of the history of Performance Art. Studio projects provide a framework that will allow us to examine Performance Art from its birth in the Dada movement to Allan Kaprow’s Happenings and Jackson Pollock’s painting on glass, onto the many ways it has developed or manifested into the variety of mediums and artists that use ideas around performance art in their work today. Students will examine how Dada, Futurism, the Bauhaus and the Black Mountain College all inspired and helped pave the way for Performance Art.

Students are required to keep a journal dictating/documenting their experiences within each project. This will allow them to keep record of their triumphs as well as their blunders, and will become a great resource for future projects. Students are also required to document each performance.

Grading:
Students will be evaluated on the degree of improvement within the capacity of the individual. Evaluation is based on the level of dedication the student shows through their participation in the class.

Methods of Achievement:
Weekly critiques; individual experimentation; PREPAREDNESS; research.

I will use the standard letter grade scale:
A=Excellent
B=Good
C=Average
D=Below Average
F=No Credit

REQUIREMENTS

Mini DV Camera/ tripod

Attendance:
Students are expected attend all class meetings. More than two absences will constitute failure of the course. Work due on the day of an absence is expected for grading during the class meeting unless the instructor gives the student permission to turn the work in late.

Final critiques on projects will be treated as tests. Students must attend all project critiques.







Assignments:
Due dates for assigned projects will be firmly enforced.

Handouts:
Allan Kaprow from Assemblages, Environments and Happenings.
pp. 703-709
Art In Theory. 1900-1990. Harrison and Wood.

Some artists listed here are clearly performance artists; others can be classified as performance hybrids, using performative elements in their work.

Students should attempt to find unexpected solutions to the following projects.
Always consider solutions that have visual and/or conceptual parallels in other media.

Triggers:
Time, Motion, Layer/Collage, Silhouette/Shadow, Color, Mass, Shape, Size, Repetition

New performance Spaces: World Wide Web, Karaoke, Video/Arcade Games, Shopping Malls, Grocery Stores, Chili Cook offs, Reality TV

Projects:
1. Endurance. Limited to one prop.
Marina Abramovic pp. 59
2. Ritual
Marina Abramovic pp. 59
On Kawara pp. 51
Gilbert and George pp. 71
3. Process
Janine Antoni pp. 123
Haim Steinbach pp. 134
4. Comedy
Meyer Vaisman pp. 205
William Wegman
5. History-reenactment-appropriation
Sherrie Levine pp.248
Joseph Beuys pp.177.
6. Portraiture
Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin pp. 236
James Luna pp. 98
Cindy Sherman
7. Body
Carolee Schneemann pp.165
Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin pp. 236
8. Living sculpture
Andrea Zittel pp.184
9. Mail art
Ray Johnson, “How to draw a Bunny” dvd.
10. Record/retrace/reenact
A common action in the second (your) or third (Bob) person.
11. Instruction/directions
Yoko Ono * Sol Lewit
12. From Dada: Irrational, absurd and playful, confrontational
Marcel Duchamp
Nihilistic
13. Sound from alternative sources
Electrical, organic, manipulated……
Vito Acconci pp. 218
14. Spectacle
Matthew Barney’s Cremaster
Paul McCarthy
Paul Pfeifer
15. Narrative
Autobiographical tours of past landscapes
Spalding Gray
16. Patently Absurd
Invent something using irony and absurdity to make commentary about a social, private or political condition. Create an infomercial for your product.


Performances are due each Thursday, beginning June 7. With the last performance on July 26th. Attendance is required each Tuesday for an open lab and Thursday for critique. I will be available during class time (M-F).

Project descriptions are intentionally vague. What little information I offer in intended as a springboard or foundation for you to build upon. My goal is for you to begin to trust and understand the way you process information individually and from that knowledge you will then build a vocabulary unique to your vision/work.

One Project of your choice will be done in public (i.e. in front of the class/at the shopping mall/church service etc. the rest will be done with a video camera. Using video you should also consider editing for content.